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Interview with Cheers theme songwriter Gary Portnoy.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 7:50 PM PST - 25 comments

Alexis Diaz’s Surreal Murals Explore Metamorphosis.
posted by homunculus at 7:20 PM PST - 5 comments

February was a great month for hip hop aficionados, what with De La Soul's Valentines gift of their entire back catalog free for download and filthy light thief's extensive post on producer J Dilla. But if that wasn't enough peanut butter and chocolate for you, here's some more mixed all together just like you like: Smell the DA.I.S.Y. is a new mix tape from De La Soul featuring some re-worked vocals over unreleased Dilla beats.
posted by carsonb at 7:08 PM PST - 5 comments

Last week, Kate Bush announced her first set of concerts in 35 years. The promotional image, which featured Kate in the ocean with a life vest, was unfortunately released during the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Social media was quick to find fault, and Kate quickly apologized and replaced the image on her website. Fans came to her defense, pointing out that the image referred to the concept suite The Ninth Wave, the second side of her fifth album, Hounds of Love. The set of songs, referencing both the painting The Ninth Wave by Ivan Aivazovsky as well as Tennyson's Idylls of the King. The controversy apparently did not dissuade fans from the upcoming concerts, which sold out today within 15 minutes.
posted by waytoomuchcoffee at 7:07 PM PST - 25 comments

Shelby and Shiloh ... a duet... By the way, if you're a Husky fan (or even a generic dog fan) , this is just one video of hundreds on the Gone To The Snow Dogs youtube channel (a great place for kids to learn about dogs....)
posted by HuronBob at 6:51 PM PST - 9 comments

How does Brazil keep the World Cup party going? Send in the army.
The Soldiers' occupation of 'strategic' Rio favelas shows just how far the state will go to prevent embarrassment during the World Cup; where the Slums lack sewers and running water 3 Years After Being 'Rescued' and parts of the city look like a War Zone.
Much is also to blame on Corrupt Police and Militia.
Here is a 3 part History of Rio de Janeiro’s Military Police
Part I: 19th Century Beginnings
Part II: From Dictatorship to Drug War
Part 3: Community Policing .
posted by adamvasco at 5:09 PM PST - 16 comments

It would be hard to find two more disparate and distinctive genres than the playful TV adventure shows of the 1960's and the paranoid conspiracy thrillers of the 1970's. Yet they both owe a great deal to the same man: Screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr., who not only had a hand in the "Batman" TV show but also penned "The Parallax View" and "Three Days of the Condor", died today at the age of 91.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 2:21 PM PST - 19 comments

Last night on the show Colbert's show posted a tweet, "I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever." That didn't sit well with twitter user and blogger Suey Park who created and then promoted the hashtag #cancelcolbert. [more inside]
posted by Carillon at 2:06 PM PST - 639 comments

Did you know there's a direct correlation between the decline in Spirograph popularity and the rise in gang activity? Reverse this deplorable trend by playing around with the Guilloché spiral pattern generator! [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 1:24 PM PST - 34 comments

Who are the Nazi War Diggers?

Now four men – the War Diggers - are scouring Eastern Europe in a battered Soviet era jeep, armed with metal detectors, shovels and sheer grit. Their mission is to uncover these forgotten battlefields and the buried stories in them. This is a race against time to get the history from the ground before it’s lost forever.

Talent biographies are available here. Conflict Antiquities has a long list of unanswered "urgent ethical and legal questions". The Anonymous Swiss Collector has a response from National Geographic [opens as word document], but questions remain. Archaeologists, osteologists, anthropologists, and others have not been pleased: the #NaziWarDiggers hashtag has more responses. [more inside]
posted by jetlagaddict at 1:04 PM PST - 14 comments

Aboriginal people do a cheeky take in response to Ellen DeGeneres' infamous "selfie" (some proceeds went to protest seal hunting). And while people protest the seal hunts, it doesn't address food insecurity issues for Northerners. A recent report released by the Council of Canadian Academies cites many key findings, such as "many factors enable or serve as barriers to food security and food sovereignty" and "there is no single way to “solve” food security issues in the North. A range of holistic approaches is required."
posted by Kitteh at 12:38 PM PST - 61 comments

Beer labels can be an art, which is why the New York Times asked design god Milton Glaser to critique some. If you want much more, Oh Beautiful Beer offers a wonderful rundown of great graphic design in the world of beer, and Paste produced its own list of favorites, as has the community on Gizmodo. If this is all too crafty, there is a list of the best designs of bottom shelf beer as well. And that isn't even touching the best beer names (pun warning).
posted by blahblahblah at 12:37 PM PST - 20 comments

These Are Cats Sitting On Glass.
posted by xbonesgt at 11:43 AM PST - 14 comments

The original story of Kitty Genovese’s death, first promulgated by the New York Times in a front-page article 50 years ago today—young single woman brutally murdered while 38 strangers watched and did nothing—was incorrect in almost every particular.
posted by latkes at 11:31 AM PST - 42 comments

Thank Goodness We Don't Have To Do That Anymore: a selection of US social customs and rituals that have mercifully passed on. Spinster Etiquette! Paying Calls! Hand Kissing! Bathing Machines! Wedding Gift Displays!
posted by The Whelk at 11:13 AM PST - 90 comments

Legendary old school tabletop RPG artist David Trampier (mentioned previously a few times on the blue) created some of the most striking iconic art which helped define the look of 1st edition Advanced D&D. He grew disillusioned with the business in the late eighties and cut off all contact with his former employers (ceasing cashing royalty checks), disappearing with such finality that Dragon Magazine assumed he was dead. By chance, some fifteen years later he appeared in a local news story in Carbondale, Illinois where he was working as a taxi driver. He politely but firmly rejected all invitations to step back into his previous career. This week he passed away at the age of 59. [more inside]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:59 AM PST - 64 comments

Because the Coens have tried their hand at numerous genres, from noir to screwball to outright surrealism, it wasn’t immediately apparent that they were making the same basic movie over and over. After 30 years and 16 features, however, it’s now hard not to notice that prototypical Coen protagonists are hapless, well-meaning schlemiels upon whom life exacts a toll that’s much worse than they deserve. In the films of Joel and Ethan Coen, it’s a hard world for little things (and everyone else)
posted by timshel at 10:18 AM PST - 74 comments

This is what happens when you build a cube out of one-way mirrors. From an industrial design collective called Numen/For Use.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:16 AM PST - 14 comments

“How do you manage to breathe enough to play that thing?” Good question. It’s one I’ve asked myself a lot lately because until recently, I hadn’t practiced the tuba regularly in—(these are confessions from the tuba world, right?)—a decade, not since I took lessons in college. I’ve continued to play for TubaChristmas, for fun whenever my dad or brother feel like jamming, and for sundry church functions—just enough to warrant owning my own tuba. But, in January, I was asked to join a local British-style brass band for their upcoming competition in April. Not wanting to be the weakest link, as I suspected I was, I instated a weekly practice goal: a minimum of a half hour, four times a week. Let me tell you, a lot of rust accumulates in ten years.

posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:26 AM PST - 46 comments

This MikuMikuDance video (original uploaded here) is what you get if you take the 1955 Tom and Jerry cartoon Down Beat Bear and replace Tom, Jerry and the titular bear with Reimu Hakurei, Remilia Scarlet and Hong Meiling from the Team Shanghai Alice Touhou Project bullet hell shooter games. There's also a nifty side by side comparison of the original and remake you can check out how faithful it's been done. MikuMikuDance (previously) is a free download for those wanting to create similar videos, as is the slightly more ambitious offshoot MikuMikuMoving.
posted by MartinWisse at 7:01 AM PST - 9 comments